OGS is touting the new system as "clear and understandable," something that couldn't be said for the previous system. From the press release:

Historically there has been a confluence of parking systems meshed together. In the past, each agency controlled the majority of its employees' spaces through "agency allocations" using a variety of methods for granting parking, while the remaining spaces were allocated by OGS through a complex waiting list system. Conversely, the new OGS Parking System puts the vast majority of parking spaces into a single, transparent, and equitable general pool, with a small number of spaces being provided to agencies for distribution to executive staffs and for unique operational needs.

Under the new system, State employees who currently have parking will be "grandfathered", meaning they will be able to keep their current space (except for those who obtained their spaces through the TPAI program) or they can choose to compete for a new space based on their State service. Those who do not currently have parking, or who hold a TPAI permit, will also be able to compete for parking based on the length of their State service.

And a heads up: The system will be using a "parking service date" to determine a state employees seniority. The date will be available by logging into the parking portal -- and if you'd like to contest that date, you must do so by July 25. (OGS says the system includes a field for service date discrepancies.)

"Frequent flier miles for state travel should be banked to lower costs for taxpayers, not pocketed by politicians for personal travel clubs," said Tedisco. "In these challenging economic times, when state government is supposed to be reining-in unnecessary spending and asking people to do more with less, taxpayer-funded air travel should be rare. When air travel is absolutely necessary and when it passes the smell test of good and ethical government, the only ones who should benefit from accrued frequent flier miles, hotel discounts and other perks are the taxpayers who are paying the tab for the trips in the form of reduced costs for future state travel related to official taxpayer business," said Tedisco.

One decision is about the use of a modern technology that's becoming ubiquitous -- GPS -- and governmental employees and their personal cars. The other is about an everyday thing that people might not think much about: tips at Starbucks.

This Temporary Parking Assistance Initiative will allocate these spaces based on state service to PEF and CSEA members who presently do not have spaces in state lots.

OGS initiated this one-time, single purpose allocation for downtown state parking after consultation with PEF and CSEA to provide timely relief to state employees who may be impacted by the City of Albany's Residential Parking Permit System.

Update: OGS spokesperson Heather Groll tells us the spaces are in most of the downtown state operated lots.

The agency has posted a form for members of CSEA and PEF who'd like to apply for spots (they'll be assigned by state seniority). The deadline is February 13.

OGS says it's aiming to complete a "comprehensive restructuring of the state's downtown Albany parking system" by sometime this spring. The state has been working on this restructuring since at least fall. It was prompted in part by the "re-stacking" of state office space, which an OGS spokesperson told us last September had moved about 2,000 state employees to downtown Albany. (We had emailed OGS back then for an answer to a reader question about how many parking spaces the state has for downtown employees -- it was still being sorted out as part of the parking restructuring.)

The Inspector General's investigation determined that in May of 2011, Witt obtained special parking privileges at his work location at Empire State Plaza based on a forged doctor's note. In addition, Defendant admitted that on three separate occasions in January and February of 2012, he submitted certified time records indicating that he had worked full days when he had not reported to work at all.

"New Yorkers have every right to expect that state employees will comport themselves with the highest degree of honesty and integrity," said Acting Inspector General [Catherine Leahy] Scott. "Fraudulently obtaining handicapped parking not only is unlawful, but potentially inhibits the rights of New Yorkers with disabilities in need of accessible parking. Further, any fraudulent abuse of time and attendance records undermines public trust. Such conduct is not tolerable."

The IG's office says Witt has been charged with four felony counts -- and faces up to four years in prison if convicted.

Full release after the jump.

By the way: Does anyone know how long the waiting list is now for a parking spot at the ESP?

The state Inspector's General office released a report today accusing former state wildlife pathologist -- and local media figure -- Ward Stone of serial misconduct. Among the allegations the report:

+ Stone admitted living at the DEC facility in Delmar "half to as much as 75 percent" of the time from 2001 until 2009.

+ DEC employees alleged that Stone made them help him prepare course materials for classes he taught at SUNY-Cobleskill, and chauffeur him to WAMC in a state vehicle so he could record his radio program. "Stone also conceded that when he first appeared on the WAMC radio program, he had staff drive him to the station because he had not been provided a parking spot." [We add: Having parked at WAMC thousands of times, parking is not that hard to find there.]

+ Employees alleged that Stone kept personal chickens, ducks, turkeys, and a puppy at the Delmar facility and used state employees and money to care for the animals. Said one employee: "He tells everyone that the domestic animals are used for research and training needs, but there have been no tests run on these animals, nor does he have the proper certification to use live animals for research purposes."

+ Stone frequently brought his kids to the office and asked state employees to watch them.

+ Stone allegedly did not properly train staff about proper lab and safety protocols. The IG's office says two employees of Stone's office contracted West Nile -- one of them by cutting himself on an improperly disposed scalpel, the other in an undetermined manner. "For such a small staff, two instances of exposure to potentially deadly disease are clearly unacceptable."

+ Following an affirmative action complaint against Stone, the state's Division of Human Rights concluded that "Stone treated everybody poorly, regardless of sex or race."

For what it's worth, the report does credit Stone for his work on PCBs, pesticides, the dangers of mercury and lead in the environment.

The IG's report also faults DEC management for not reigning in Stone, and "while Stone's direct supervisors and other mid-level managers at DEC made serious and persistent efforts to address his conduct through established disciplinary procedures, their efforts at times were deliberately thwarted by DEC's executive management." The report alleges that DEC management was reluctant to discipline Stone because of his profile in the media and public support.

Municipal budget fact of the day: pension costs eat 22 percent of the city of Albany's budget tax levy.

The Jennings administration released a letter today it says Jerry Jennings has sent to state comptroller Tom DiNapoli "urging real pension reform." Yep, that sounds like a big bowl of boiled vegetables, but this part caught our eye:

The rising cost of pensions has been one of the greatest burdens on our city's finances and taxpayers.

This problem has evolved into a crisis as you have mandated increases in pension contributions over the last several years which have devastated our city budgets. Over the last decade pension costs have ballooned from roughly $700,000 to over $12 million. In 2001, only 1% of the Albany taxpayers property taxes went to pension costs, as of last year they are paying 22% of their taxes to cover pension costs.

This means that ten years ago Albany residents were contributing approximately $7.50 per person to cover pension costs, today they are paying almost $130.

The full letter is after the jump. Not in the letter: criticism of the leaders and administrations who agreed to the contracts with the unions in the first place.

Andrew Cuomo and his administration presented their proposed 2012-2013 budget this afternoon. The budget is a big deal for the state, because it's the Cuomo administration putting its money (actually, all our money) where its mouth is.

This year's presentation was less dramatic than last year -- there was no declaration of the state being "functionally bankrupt." Cuomo touted the measures taken in last year's budget for helping to make things easier this year. "We regained the public trust," he said, "That is a great gift and an awesome responsibility. Let's build on it this year, even higher, together." (pause for applause)

So, we watched the address and skimmed through the budget briefing docs so you don't have to. Here's a quick overview of Cuomo's proposed budget...

The revised contract includes no pay increases for 2011, 2012, and 2013 (with a 2 percent raise in 2014). It increases the share employees will have to pay for healthcare. And there are 9 furlough days that will be paid back at the end of the contract.

The contract is a year shorter than the original five-year contract. The union's leadership argued shorter length would allow the union to negotiate the next deal "in an economic environment that may be significantly better than the current one." The leadership also said the new deal included stronger layoff protections, deferred payments for the furlough days (as opposed to "retention bonuses"), and more flexibility in using vacation time to offset an employee's share of healthcare costs.

The PEF membership had voted down the first offer, which was very similar to the deal taken by CSEA, in late September. Andrew Cuomo had been threatening to go ahead with the layoffs if the revised contract wasn't approved.

The contract offer included a three-year hold on raises, increased employee contributions to healthcare, and furloughs. It also included a no-layoffs pledge. CSEA, the other big state employee union, approved a similar contract. [Cuomo admin] [NYT]

Said PEF president Ken Brynien in a statement: "The decision to reject the tentative agreement was made by our rank-and-file members who clearly feel they are being asked to sacrifice more than others, particularly in light of the pending expiration of the state's millionaire's tax." He calls for the Cuomo admin to continue bargaining and "resist laying off thousands of our members as he has threatened."

The Cuomo admin has been warning that a rejection of the contract could lead to layoffs -- notices had gone out to 700 PEF members ahead of the tentative contract. [TU]

A totally unofficial estimate of the area to be covered by the parking permit system.

The task force developing the Albany residential parking permit system released its report and recommendations last week. The file that we received from Common Councilman Richard Conti, the task force's chair, is embedded after the jump.

If you live/work/visit the area around the Empire State Plaza, it's worth taking a look at this report. There will be a public comment period after an ordinance is introduced. There's also lobbying/emailing/stopping your council person on the street to talk about suggestions or changes. (And based on the comments from June, it sounds like people will have suggestions.)

"Your boss can't sit in the backseat of your car and watch you, your wife and your children 24 hours a day, but that's exactly what the Department of Labor did to [Michael] Cunningham," said NYCLU Executive Director Donna Lieberman. "The courts have already prohibited police from using GPS devices to track people without a warrant. We're confident they will hold the government agencies to the same standard. The only thing scarier than having a police officer secretly track you is having your boss secretly track you."

The NYCLU alleges that Cunningham's car was tracked 24/7 in June and July 2008 -- including a family vacation in Massachusetts. It says DOL used the GPS data against Cunningham in its attempt to fire him this past August.

The NYCLU says Cunningham received a notice on termination on August 24. According to the SeeThroughNY database, Cunningham's salary was $114,961 in 2009 -- though he ended up getting paid a little more than half that.

... what bothers me is, it's gnawing me, I don't think I should be setting up a layoff plan for the next governor to do. I think if you're going to layoffs, you do them yourself. And so I'm really considering altering [the layoff plan for next year] and starting the layoffs sooner... [in] 2010.

We need $250 million in workforce reductions and we have not come close to that. That's why we tried to do the furloughs, the court told us we couldn't do it. That's why we tried to get five days extra lag pay in negotiation, and the workers wouldn't do it. And so I think our hand is forced here.

Paterson said his administration is "still calculating" how many layoffs might be involved -- the number of early retirees would play a role in the number.

I don't want to lay people off ... This is just the unfortunate situation that I turned up in going back to a little over two years ago when I became governor that it's the worst economic times in the state's history and I've had to do things that go against what I have felt in my heart, the same way those Republican senators had to vote against how they feel about the extenders. But what I'm doing and what I think they're doing and other are doing here at the Capitol is we're trying to adjust to a crisis.

If Paterson tries to layoff state workers, the public employee unions will almost certainly sue because of the no-layoffs agreement they have with him.

+ Sixty-five percent of respondents said they're against David Paterson's plan to lay off 10,000 state workers at the start of next year. A majority of every demographic opposes the layoffs (the closest split: 53 percent of men oppose).

+ When asked if they would like to see their current state senator re-elected, or have someone else get the spot, 50 percent of respondents said "someone else." (Tough talk, New York. Let's see how that turns out in November.)

+ Andrew Cuomo's favorability is down to 59 percent -- but he still crushes the rest of the field.

+ People still seem unsure about Kirsten Gillibrand (40 percent say they'd prefer "someone else" vs. 34 percent who say they'd like to see her elected) -- but check out the don't know/no opinions for her three potential Republican challengers: David Malpass (81), Bruce Blakeman (80), Joe DioGuardi (75).

+ Chuck Schumer's favorability is at 54 percent -- its lowest point ever.

The margin of error was +/- 3.4 percent. Here's a breakdown of the full results.

Federal judge Lawrence Kahn today granted a preliminary injunction against the state worker furloughs and the withholding of the four percent pay raises. The Paterson administration was also blocked from including the furloughs and pay freeze in a future emergency budget extenders.

From the decision (the plaintiffs are the state worker unions and the defendants are the Paterson administration):

Plaintiffs have met their burden of showing that the permanent 20% loss in salary and wages that the furlough plan effects constitutes irreparable harm and that irreparable harm flows from Defendants' failure to pay the contracted-for increases in salaries and wages, which were negotiated years prior to the challenged extender bill, and upon wihch the affected employees have surely relied.

To uphold self-interested impairments of contractual rights from suit under the Contract Clause, the Court must see that the impairments are reasonable and necessary, as established by real and demonstrable consideration of needs and alternatives. Instead, the Court observes both a complete repudiation by the Senate of such a judgment and an argument by Defendants that fails to show sufficient consideration and analysis of the kind required by the Contract Clause.

(The Senate grudgingly passed the budget extender that included the furloughs because not doing so would have shut down the government. Neil Breslin was one of the senators who proposed the resolution.)

Today's ruling was determined in part by evidence submitted by the Legislature in opposition to the extraordinary action I took in proposing furloughs and withholding pay increases. However, both houses of the Legislature agree with my assertion that New York's public employee unions must contribute, along with all other New Yorkers, to solving this extraordinary fiscal crisis. This agreement is reflected in each of its individual budget resolutions, which count $250 million or more in workforce savings in the 2010-11 fiscal year.

State wildlife pathologist Ward Stone responded in multiple outlets today to the allegations in last weekend's TU story. From a long Metroland piece, featuring his response and that of many supporters:

Stone said that it was likely that the article was designed, he said, to cause his reputation damage. Each criticism, he said, seemed aimed to injure him personally, and wouldn't hold up under scrutiny. Yet, Stone didn't comment on the allegations that he lives in his office. And, as one of his supporters points out, "I am angry that he gave them so much ammunition to attack him with."

Chet Hardin reports that many of Stone's supporters think the story was a "hit job" arranged because of Stone's work for an environmental group concerned about pollution from the LaFarge cement plant in Ravena.

"I have repeatedly called upon the State public employee unions to work with me to achieve critical workforce savings. Because unions have not accepted any proposals to achieve necessary savings, I am left with no other choice but to move forward with this plan. I do not take this action lightly, but it is necessary given the unions' unwillingness to make any sacrifices and I will do whatever is necessary to protect New York's finances."

The Paterson admin says agency heads will be given the discretion to schedule "one furlough day for each of their employees during the week of May 17." Positions in "essential" fields such as health and safety won't be included. Management/confidential employees also won't be subject to the furlough because their annual raises were canceled.

The furloughs are being framed as a cost-saving measure by the administration, but it's likely Paterson is using them to squeeze the legislature. By tacking the furloughs on to the budget extender, he's forcing the legislature to pick between the furloughs (which will irk the powerful state worker unions extraordinarily) and shutting the down government. Or, of course, there's option three: passing a budget.

Paterson is also floating an early retirement incentive. Details after the jump.

During his 41 years as New York's wildlife pathologist, Ward B. Stone has built a statewide reputation as an environmental hero, popular with the media and a rare public servant willing to thumb his nose at authority to defend nature.

What is less known about the 71-year-old scientist at the state's Wildlife Resources Center in southern Albany County, except among co-workers and state investigators, is that he has a long history of allegations of abusive, unethical and inappropriate behavior, ranging from berating colleagues to shooting animals, and has been repeatedly faulted by his frustrated superiors, according to interviews and records.

Read the whole thing. The list of allegations is long. (Also, "Dr. Stone" doesn't have a PhD.)

David Paterson is apparently going to try again to get the state worker unions to give up their raises this year. [TU]

Colonie assemblyman -- and outspoken MMA critic -- Bob Reilly says he's willing to support a compromise bill that would legalize ultimate fighting in the state if certain restrictions were placed on the sport. [TU]

After the Saratoga Springs' police and fire chiefs announced their retirements this week, Ron Kim -- the outgoing Saratoga Springs public safety commissioner -- says he's moving to hire their replacements. That's not going over well with Richard Wirth, who become public safety commissioner on January 1. [TU] [Saratogian]

The Hudson River dredging project has started up again after tests indicated that PCB levels in the water had dropped below the set limit. The EPA is blaming fast-moving currents for the spike. Officials from some downstream communities say the EPA was slow to notify them of the test results. [Troy Record] [TU] [Post-Star]

Yet another lawsuit filed over the alleged conduct of Steven Raucci accuses the former Schenectady school district employee of cutting off the heat to a teacher's classroom after her husband -- who worked for Raucci -- indicated he might challenge Raucci for a union leadership position. [Daily Gazette]

The Troy Fire Department says mayor Harry Tutunjian has asked it to tour the RPI campus -- EMPAC in particular -- to get a better sense of the layout of campus buildings. The TFD has been lobbying for RPI to pay a public safety fee to fund additional fire coverage of the campus. [TU]

A state janitor was arrested and his boss suspended this week amid allegations that they created a hidden party lounge at an Empire State Plaza garage to sell drugs, smoke pot and sleep for hours during work shifts.

A business run by Pedro Espada, one of the senators who set this whole circus in motion, owes almost $350k in back taxes. In 2007, Espada made almost $460k at the org, which gets funding from the state. [TU]

This agreement when fully adopted will save taxpayers approximately $440 million over the next two years, which is approximately the amount that was projected to be saved through the proposed workforce reduction plan announced in March. In addition, the unions will support the imposition of a new Tier V in the Retirement System, a proposal the Governor has championed since last year.

The agreement will also reduce the state workforce by approximately 7,000 positions through a targeted separation incentive, aggressive attrition and the elimination of positions that are funded but are currently vacant. In addition, a voluntary reduction in work schedule will be implemented to achieve cost reductions.

According to the release, the "targeted separation incentive" is a "one-time $20,000 retirement incentive payment [that] will be offered to approximately 4,500 employees." The incentives will only be given to people who are in jobs scheduled to be eliminated. About 2,500 jobs that are currently unfilled are also scheduled to be permanently eliminated.

There's also this part, of which we're not really sure the meaning:

Voluntary Reduction in Work Schedule (Net Two-year Savings: $156 million). Each union will be provided with a proportional savings target in line with the size of their respective portion of the workforce, which they will work in concert with their membership to achieve through a voluntary reduction in work schedule.

Voluntary Reduction in Work Schedule (VRWS) is a program that allows employees to voluntarily trade income for time off. The VRWS program continues to be available to eligible annual-salaried employees in the Professional, Scientific and Technical Services Unit (PS&T) and to eligible annual-salaried employees designated Management/Confidential (M/C).

The announcement of a deal between the state worker unions and the Paterson administration to avoid layoffs is "expected" to come today. The deal will reportedly include $20k buyouts for employees eligible for retirement -- which has some observers asking where the money is going to come from. The deal also apparently includes a new, less generous tier in the state pension system. [NYDN] [TU]

"People briefed on details" tell the TU that the state worker unions and the Paterson administration are working on a deal that would avoid the planned layoffs -- by offering $20k buyouts to employees near retirement and adding a new tier to the state pension system. [TU]

The "project labor agreement" that will guarantee union wages on the Luther Forest chip fab construction was officially announced yesterday. The agreement includes a no-strike pledge from local unions. GlobalFoundries has said it was waiting for such an agreement to be in place before starting construction. The project could include as many as 1,900 construction jobs. [Daily Gazette] [Biz Review] [Post-Star]

The head of the Albany firefighters' union says his members have complained "several times" about slow response times for Mohawk Ambulance. The service is under scrutiny after it took 25 minutes for an ambulance to show up at the scene of a fatal crash between a kid on a bike and a car last week. [TU]

Scott Murphy is up 25 votes on Jim Tedisco in the 20th Congressional District special election, according to the latest unofficial numbers from the New York State Board of Elections. The Tedisco is campaign is asking the state to extend the deadline for military ballots another 15 days (the deadline was yesterday) -- 205 of the 998 military ballots mailed out have been returned so far. The special election saga took another turn yesterday when the state Supreme Court judge who will rule on disputed absentee ballots was out yesterday for medical reasons. [NYS BoE] [Planet Albany] [Daily Gazette] [TU]

Note: the TU's site was loading erratically, if at all, for us this morning.

One of the state worker unions says it rejected a deal offered by the Paterson administration in which the creation of a new pension tier would guarantee no layoffs. According to many reports last week, the Paterson administration has offered a handful of deals involving cuts in raises or other concessions in return for a no-layoffs guarantee. The unions have rejected these deals. [TU]

As of Friday afternoon the unofficial count from the New York State Board of Elections has Scott Murphy up 35 votes on Jim Tedisco in the 20th Congressional District special election. The counting of absentee ballots continues this week. Democrats in Columbia County accused Republicans participating in the count there of "acting in bad faith." What happens if the election ends up in a tie at the end of all this counting? You guessed it: we get to do it all over again. [NYS BoE] [TU] [Troy Record]

As of this morning, the New York State Board of Elections was reporting that Scott Murphy had an eight vote lead over Jim Tedisco in the 20th Congressional District special election. The count of absentee ballots will continue today. The NY 20th may be missing out on federal stimulus money because it doesn't have a House member right now. [NYSBoE] [AP/TU]

The Tedisco and Murphy campaigns have been calling absentee voters in the 20th Congressional District in an attempt to find out how they voted in the special election. The count in the race is currently at Tedisco +17. The counting of absentee ballots will start today. [TU] [CapNews9]

As B pointed out in a comment, secretaries do a lot of things -- and sometimes the title can be misleading. And we've often thought that secretaries pretty much run the world behind the scenes. So we acknowledge that they're important people.

But the former wife of a Congressman has a $94k/year state job as a secretary that she got during the administration of a governor with whom her former husband was (politically) close?

This seemed a little weird -- not necessarily wrong, but unusual. And the payroll data indicates that it is unusual.

The Saratoga Springs School Board has officially fired the English teacher who had been found by state ed officials to be having a platonic, but inappropriate, relationship with a student outside of school. [Daily Gazette]

The Scoop

Ever wish you had a smart, savvy friend with the inside line on what's happening around the Capital Region? You know, the kind of stuff that makes your life just a little bit better? Yeah, we do, too. That's why we created All Over Albany. Find out more.